Yappy

What Yappy does

Yappy is a Panama-based digital instant payment platform operated by Yappy, S.A., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Banco General, S.A. The platform enables consumers to send and receive money and pay merchants using only a cell phone number as the address, eliminating the need to exchange long bank account numbers. It operates as two interconnected offerings: Yappy Personal for peer-to-peer transfers and consumer payments, and Yappy Comercial for merchant payment acceptance via static and dynamic QR codes, payment links, merchant directory listings, and an e-commerce payment button. The product is distributed through mobile applications on iOS, Android, and Huawei, through affiliated Panamanian banks (Banco General, Credicorp Bank, Davivienda, Metrobank, St. George's Bank, Banisi Panama, Caja de Ahorros), and through a Tilopay partnership that enables native integration with Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce, Magento, and Vtex e-commerce platforms.

The underlying technology combines cloud-hosted APIs with bank integrations that aggregate multiple bank accounts into a single mobile interface, secured by biometric authentication and supporting features such as recurring payments, bill splitting, and personalized transfers. A REST API for the Payment Button (Botón de Pago) supports PHP, Node.js, and .NET development, with additional APIs for authentication, transaction history, cancellation, and payment-method retrieval. The platform is reported to serve over one million customers across Panama, with all transactions settled in U.S. dollars.

Yappy's revenue model is asymmetric: the consumer product (Yappy Personal) is free, with no fees, charges, or commissions, while merchants using Yappy Comercial pay a 1% + ITBMS (Panama's sales tax) commission per transaction, with a $0.02 minimum, debited as a consolidated daily charge. Additional merchant services, including API integrations and identifier-based reconciliation (Pago con Identificador), are subject to a separate fee schedule. As a captive subsidiary of Panama's largest bank, Yappy's intellectual property, brand, and operating infrastructure are owned and resourced by Banco General, and the platform operates exclusively within Panama with no disclosed geographic expansion.

Name

Yappy

Legal name

Yappy, S.A.

Website

https://yappy.com.pa

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Yappy is a Panama-based digital payments platform, wholly owned by Banco General, S.A., enabling instant peer-to-peer transfers and merchant payments via cell phone number, serving over one million consumers and thousands of merchants across eight partner banks.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Mobile Payments

NAICS

Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (522320)

SIC

Finance Services (6199)

akta.pro primary industry

Marketplace / Platform Acquiring (PayFac & Sub-Merchant Management) (FSAMABAF)

Keywords

• Mobile payment platform
• Peer-to-peer transfers
• QR code payments
• Merchant payment acceptance
• Bank-aggregated payments

Headquarters

HQ city

Paitilla

HQ country

Panama

HQ region

Latin America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Yappy Personal - User Fees: The use and functionalities of the Yappy Personal platform do not incur costs, charges, commissions, or fees for the User. However, Yappy may establish fees for users who exceed transaction limits or whose transactional behavior resembles a business (e.g., personal user behaving as a business).
2. Yappy Comercial - Transaction Commission: Merchants pay 1% + ITBMS (Panama's sales tax) per transaction received through any Yappy Commercial payment method. Minimum commission is $0.02 per transaction. Commission is calculated per transaction and debited as a single daily charge to the merchant's linked business account for the total of all received payments. Customers do not pay this commission.
3. Yappy Comercial - Services Plus: Additional subscription services for merchants including API Integrations (Anulation API, Authentication API, History API, Payment Methods API) and Payment with Identifier. Subject to additional costs as specified in the published fee schedule.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Yappy is a digital instant payment platform operating exclusively in Panama through two interconnected offerings. Yappy Personal enables consumers to send and receive money between individuals and pay merchants using only a cell phone number, aggregating bank accounts from multiple partner banks into a single mobile app. Yappy Comercial provides merchants with multiple digital payment acceptance methods including static and dynamic QR codes, payment buttons for e-commerce, payment links, and POS integration, with settlement to their affiliated bank accounts.

Product overview

Yappy is a digital instant payment platform operated by Yappy, S.A. (a subsidiary of Banco General, S.A.) in Panama. The platform operates as two interconnected offerings: Yappy Personal (for consumers) enables peer-to-peer transfers, person-to-merchant payments, and gift card functionality via mobile app using phone numbers. Yappy Comercial (for businesses) provides multiple payment collection methods including Directorio Yappy (merchant directory), Código QR Estático/Dinámico (static/dynamic QR codes), Botón de Pago (online payment button), Link de Pago (payment links), Yappy en Caja (POS integration), and POS terminal support. Premium services include Pago con Identificador (identifier-based reconciliation) and Integraciones API (API integrations for transaction management). The ecosystem connects over one million customers across multiple partner banks including Banco General, Banistmo, Caja de Ahorros, Credicorp Bank, Davivienda, MetroBank, and St. George's Bank.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 1 million customers using the platform
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

AI capability3 records

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• TilopaycoreTechnology or IntegrationStrategic integration partnership enabling Yappy Payment Button integration with major e-commerce platforms. Tilopay provides direct integration with Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce, Magento, and Vtex, simplifying the checkout process for merchants without complex development work.
• Credicorp BankcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorAffiliated bank partner enabling Yappy integration. Credicorp Bank customers can access Yappy services through the bank's online and mobile banking platforms.
• Davivienda PanamacoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorAffiliated bank partner enabling Yappy integration. Davivienda customers can link their accounts to Yappy and make/receive payments.
• MetrobankcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorAffiliated bank partner enabling Yappy integration. Metrobank has integrated Yappy into its services, allowing customers to access payment functionality.
• St. George's BankcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorAffiliated bank partner enabling Yappy integration for retail banking digital payments.
• Banisi PanamacoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorAffiliated bank partner enabling Yappy integration.
• Caja de AhorroscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorAffiliated bank partner enabling Yappy integration for savings bank customers.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Zelle: US bank-led instant P2P payment network operating across 1,000+ banks. Highly comparable to Yappy's bank-aggregated, phone-addressed instant transfer model, but at much larger US scale.
• Venmo: Mobile-first P2P payment app owned by PayPal with social features (emoji, notes). Closest analog to Yappy Personal's phone-number transfers, split-bill, and personalization functionality.
• Mercado Pago: Latin America's leading digital wallet and merchant acquirer, offering QR, payment links, and POS across multiple countries. Comparable end-to-end consumer/merchant payment stack to Yappy Comercial.
• Cash App: Block's mobile payment app offering free P2P transfers and merchant/business tools. Comparable consumer UX, fee model (free personal), and merchant payment features.

Regional players

• Daviplata: Banco Davivienda's mobile wallet in Colombia providing P2P and merchant payments. Directly comparable as a bank-distributed mobile wallet with phone-number addressing and QR acceptance.
• PIX: Brazil's central-bank-operated instant payment system. Conceptually analogous to Yappy — phone-keyed instant transfers across multiple banks — though state-run and at vastly larger scale in Brazil.
• Nequi: Colombian digital wallet spun out of Bancolombia, offering phone-number-based P2P and merchant payments. Closest structural analog as a bank-affiliated mobile wallet in Latin America.
• Tigo Money: Mobile money service operating across Central America including Panama. Comparable digital wallet and merchant payment proposition in the same Panamanian market.

Broad incumbents

• M-Pesa: Vodafone's pioneering mobile money platform across Africa and parts of Asia. Comparable as a telco/bank-distributed mobile wallet with P2P and merchant payment features, though at vastly larger global scale.

Others

• Tilopay: Panamanian payment gateway that integrates with Yappy and other methods across Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce, Magento, and Vtex. Listed as a partner but also a regional payment-processor peer serving overlapping merchants.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Yappy